Safaricom (NSE: SCOM) has today launched Connected Farmer, a mobile and web based service that will help agricultural processing businesses in production planning by opening a communication line with farmers.
Connected Farmer enables the organizations transact with farmers by leveraging M-PESA to make and receive payments securely. It also helps register and key in information such as expected production quantities helping processors plan especially on pick up and work force resulting in overall cost reduction in production.
“Our aim is to digitize the end to end operations of agricultural produce processing firms creating supply chain efficiencies, linking farmers to commercial markets while facilitating productivity improvements,” said Rita Okuthe , Director of Enterprise Business, Safaricom
Connected Farmer is a partnership between Safaricom and Mezzanine Ware – a company that specializes in developing mobile enabled solutions for businesses. The launch follows a six month pilot which saw 12 firms with 80,000 farmers sign up. The technology also help farmers in tracking sales and cash management.
“Before we implemented Connected Farmer, our dairy farmers did not have full visibility of the amount of milk sold. Having this recorded improves visibility on the amount of production sold which in turn, helps them manage their cash flows.” Said Philip Kibusie, Chairman Sirikiwa Dairies
The Connected Farmer digital solution adds to the suite of services that Safaricom Business has launched recently. Other propositions that focus on SMEs include Fibre for Business, Easy Bundles and Ready Business.
The ‘Ready Business’ platform bundles together various technology and advisory services to empower entrepreneurs tackle challenges of a rapidly changing business landscape.